


Reborn

by Ne_Obliviscaris



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Ghosts, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Kylo Ren Redemption, Renperor, Romance, Slow Burn, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 11:44:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13213044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ne_Obliviscaris/pseuds/Ne_Obliviscaris
Summary: Takes place after the events of The Last Jedi SO BEWARE THE SPOILERS.What's left of the Resistance has slunk off to lick its wounds. However, it's struck a deep blow that may bring a permanent end to the band of freedom fighters. Rey is left to stand on a knife's edge between light and dark with only a few ancient texts to guide her way.The First Order reigns with barely a challenge. But the new Supreme Leader finds the Resistance is the least of his concerns when cracks in the organization begin to show, never mind the cracks in his own psyche.A fire is about to sweep through the galaxy. What will be reborn from the ashes?





	Reborn

If someone had shown Rey a star chart and asked her where the Resistance should hide next, she would have pointed to an isolated world in the Outer Rim. Hell, maybe even in the Unknown Regions.

Naboo would have been nowhere on the list. Yet, that was where Leia directed them.

“You’ll find an old villa at these coordinates,” she said, punching them into the system. “Wake me when we get there. It shouldn’t take longer than a couple of hours.”

“Are you all right?” Rey sensed something off about the general but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Just old age.” Leia waved away Rey’s concern and disappeared down the corridor, heading toward the captain’s cabin. The cabin that once belonged to Han.

Reluctantly, Rey turned back to the console. She didn’t need to work the controls. She could put the _Falcon_ on autopilot. But she couldn’t quite talk herself into it, the desire to be busy thrumming through her veins.

After the giddiness of surviving Crait had left them, exhaustion stole over the paltry remainder of the Resistance. One by one, people found berths or at least horizontal surfaces that would bear their body weight.

Poe was curled up on a mound of flight suits in the common area. Finn was sleeping on the floor next to Rose’s nook. Chewie had slipped off to his quarters. If Rey needed to run from one end of the ship to the other, she’d have to navigate a maze of sleeping bodies.

A warm, comfortable silence stole over the ship. The blue blaze of hyperspace sliced over the view screen. It was soothing. She settled back in the pilot’s chair and let the events of the past twenty or so hours pass over her.

Rey almost couldn’t believe she went to Ben, fueled by a vision that may or may not have been Snoke’s doing. Snoke was dead, now, and Ben—no. _Kylo_.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Which was it? Ben offered his hand, whispering “please” with longing in his eyes.

But it had been Kylo who talked about building a new order. Kylo had ordered the attack on Crait. Luke had faced Kylo and died from the exertion of it.

Ben gazed up at her in their last connection, heartbreak and pain etched in his every line. For a moment, hope flared in his eyes. He must have felt that moment when she nearly—

Rey pulled her knees to her chest and laid her head on them, pushing her mind down other paths.

Luke Skywalker was dead. She sensed him go. He hadn’t been the legend striding the stars, as she imagined. He had been a broken, disillusioned man who gave her precisely two lessons on the Force.

In one, he chastised her for not fighting the Dark. In the second, he explained why the Jedi needed to end. She’d hoped he would be her master, be the teacher she desperately needed. Then she discovered he made Kylo Ren by not believing in Ben Solo.

Despite his flaws, Luke would know what to make of her feelings, of what happened in the throne room. However, he wasn’t there to speak with and Leia looked too fragile to bear Rey’s burden. Finn wouldn’t understand. And she barely knew Poe. In the quiet of the _Falcon_ ’s cockpit, the loneliness was almost a physical presence.

_You’re not alone._

The memory of the hut, her and Ben’s emotions rolling over each other like tidewater, spiraled through Rey. A strangled sob escaped her throat. Tears pricked her eyes. She held her breath, letting the pain burn in her chest for a moment, and then it all come out. Wrapping her arms tightly around her legs, Rey sobbed.

“Oh, Ben,” she moaned.

#

Kylo looked up from the battle report. For a second, he thought he heard…

“Supreme Leader,” Hux said. “We must discuss our next move.”

They stood on the bridge of the _Finalizer_. Now that Snoke’s flagship was in ruins, it was the new base of operations for the First Order. Kylo very much wanted to go back to his quarters—to sleep or brood—but a certain redheaded asshole stood in the way.

“Regroup with the fleet,” Kylo ordered. “And send ships to salvage the _Supremacy_.”

“And what of the Resistance? They still remain a problem.” Hux raised a brow, a sneer lingering in the corners of his mouth.

Kylo’s hands curled into fists. Rage and despair warred in his chest and, for a moment, he couldn’t breathe. He forced air into his lungs. “Send out a call to all bounty hunters and spies. Tell them there’s a reward of two thousand credits to whoever can provide useful information on the Resistance.”

For a brief moment, Hux actually looked impressed. “Right away, sir.”

Kylo turned on his heel and strode out.

He wasn’t a fool. He knew he would need to watch the general. It would be easier just to sling that ginger shit out of the nearest airlock but Kylo didn’t have a viable replacement in mind. And, honestly, he didn’t feel like dealing with it at the moment.

In his quarters, he took a shower, letting near-scalding water sluice away the salt of Crait. Salt stung his eyes and he scrubbed shampoo into his hair. The rest of him, he washed and scraped until he felt raw from it. When there was nothing left to clean, he just stood there and tried to embrace the hollow ache in his gut.

_Rey…_

She had rejected him. He offered her the galaxy and she said no. This scavenger girl who didn’t have a lineage, who was no one, who knew what it was like to be lonely and abandoned and disappointed, had told him no. It should have made him angry. In fact, it had enraged him at first. But now?

He fumbled with the water controls to shut off the stream. Trying very hard not to think, Kylo dried himself and dressed in a pair of sleeping pants and shirt.

He was free now. Snoke no longer haunted the dark corners of Kylo’s mind. He was Supreme Leader. He ruled the galaxy. He had _surpassed_ Vader. Yet, why did he feel as if nothing mattered?

Kylo laid on his narrow bed and pulled the sheets over his chest. Rolling on his side, he curled around his pain and tried to find sleep.

#

Rey must have dozed off because she found herself outside her old AT-AT on Jakku. She knew she was dreaming. The heat on her skin and the dry air blowing over her were only fragments of memory.

Someone called her name in the distance.

She moved toward the sound. The wind picked up, howling over the dunes, and it yanked on her clothes. She stumbled up a hill of sand.

“Rey!” came again the cry.

“I’m coming!” she shouted back, coming on the crest of the dune. In the distance, she saw the dark shape of a person. Rey squinted, shielding her eyes against the sunlight.

The figure waved both arms at her. “Rey!” It sounded like a man.

She took a step forward. The sand shifted and she was suddenly tumbling, heels over ass, down the dune. With a thump, Rey hit the sandy valley, knocking the breath out of her.

“Rey.” A feminine voice now. For a brief moment, she felt a brief kiss on the cheek. “Goodbye.”

Rey awoke with a jerk. Her heart froze. _No._

She threw herself out of the pilot’s chair and bolted down the corridor. Poe woke with a jerk as she dashed past him.

“What’s wrong?” he called after her.

Rey ignored him as she pelted toward the crew quarters, dodging sleeping Resistance members. When she reached the captain’s cabin, she fumbled with the access panel. For a moment, she forgot how to open a damn door but it finally slid open.

She took one step into the room and _knew_. Whether it was because of the Force or because death was something one became acquainted with on Jakku, she couldn’t say. But Rey didn’t need to come any closer to the body in the bed to know that Leia Organa was no more.

Rey dropped to her knees.

#

Kylo woke with a jerk and sat up. “Mother!”

Pressing his hands against his face, he dissolved into helpless tears.

**Author's Note:**

> Just FYI: The tracker the First Order used in the movie is not going to show up in this fanfiction. The movie was really vague on exactly what they were tracking (the Resistance ship's energy signature? a tracking device in Finn? Poe Dameron's infectious smile? who knows?). So, to save myself a headache, I'm going to ignore it. 
> 
> Also, I'm only using what I know from the movies in writing this as I am not familiar with the canon from the books.


End file.
